For some reason JC Whitney popped in to my head. Come to find out they are still in business. http://www.jcwhitney.com/ I thought they went under a while ago. I can remember buying stuff all the time from them. Not that its was really good. lol Anyone else buy from them in the ole days?
In the late 70's/early 80's, I would buy auto accessories from them. I'm still using wheel chocks and electrical pliers I got from them. UticaGeoff
J.C. Whitney and W.W. Warshawsky and company and even Blue Star auto parts all op'd outa the same building an 19th and State in Chicago. The whole neighborhood is now the "New South Loop" and is all high end lofts etc. Warshawsky and Co. is now just Mail order from LaSalle, Il., DBA JC Whitney and co. I believe JCW and RJW merged in the early 50's . They were the place to go for $19.95 chrome valve covers and all the 60-70s bling stuff generally from Taiwan into the 80's. My BBC valve covers came from there. Two pair were $50 and one set was mis-boxed for a BBF. They said just "keepem" and gave me a new pair for the BBC. They are still on with no leaks after 30 some years... If you have a chance, google it; theres a ton of early Chicago motor history there (that whole area was auto parts row in the day) and that 'hood was also where all the speakeasy's were during prohibition, including property owned by you-know-who. The whole area is a network of underground tunnels, originally used for storing parts and then for getaway routes for the bad guys. I went to Greer Tech (an Auto mech school) at 22nd and Michigan around the corner from where Big Al lived at the Lexington Hotel. They still had car elevators and 4-5 floors of stockrooms (as a store) and a bunch of 30s era car lifts we used in the early 70's. We got to sneak into some of those tunnels for a "smoke" at lunch and saw many wooden crates with Packard fenders and the like still scattered around. Mustve been something back in the day! ws
Back when my Dad was restoring his MG TD we had JC Whitney catalogs lying around. That was the 80s. I discovered them again in the early 2000s. It's incredible they are still going. I gave up because their website was so bad, just impossible to figure out.
I used to buy from Whitney back in the mid 60's. They were the only ones who had a floor shifter for a 56 Buick 3 speed I had back then. On The Eighth Day God Created Buick
I remember looking at their floor shifters with the idea I would put one in my 55 Century. Also remember them listing the 2x4 mainifold for the 400-455 for now a days cheap.
They have a warehouse in LaSalle - Peru in Illinois. The showroom is a bunch of junk, cheap crap. They still have the catalogs though.
My 79 turbo regal was due for an engine rebuild in the mid 90s and I had ordered a cam out of thier catalog not even knowing the difference between regular and boosted cam profiles. Was my first engine rebuild (of course good ol dad helped) however I quickly found out about buick cam bearing oiling problems a couple months later lol. Wasnt too bad cause I ended up getting a a new motor for free thanks to dads network of friends and took what we learned and made a pretty nice 30 over 350 buick small block with a nice cam and the oil and bearing mods to back it up!
I got generic weatherstrip "fuzzies" for my old Regal Limited from them; the old paper catalog used to have cross section dimensions. Funny thing is that many years later (about 2015), I ordered some "fuzzies" for my 87 Turbo Limited from Steele, who actually got them from PUI, which looked EXACTLY like the ones I got from JCW years ago.
In the '70s Dad got a carpet for the Roadmaster and a grill for his '35 Ford from JC Whitney. The carpet was the wrong shade of blue, wrong nap, and was a poor fit. The grill was such a bad fit that the hood mascot broke on installation. And it rusted so fast, that it left a rust stain on the driveway the first time it got rained on.
They used to be de riguer' for Model T parts before the likes of Langs, and MAC's etc. Came to find all the coils and timers were made in JAPAN, not even china yet! They weren't afraid to mention brand names back then, like engine overhaul kits from Hastings, Victor and Perfect Circle "Guaranteed to increase power and gas mileage and lower your E.T. AND provide better cold weather starting..." Plus they had the CHOTCHSKI stuff like the rear window Chihuahua bobble head dog with light up eyeballs for brake lights! Kids today don't "get" that stuff... ws
Who can forget "Winky the Cat " . I recently saw a car show on Discovery . Its from Canada I believe . Guy finds cars and fixes them up to sell . The shop where they were working had almost bare walls except for a large J.C. Whitney banner. I forget what the name of the show was and only saw it for about 10 minutes.
Ah yes, the Ansen sloppy shift. I had one as well, but I didn't get it from JC Whitney. They screwed me on a set of running boards for a '35 Chevy Coupe. The boards were of horrible quality and didn't come close to fitting. They refused to take them back. In 1962 $80 was a lot of money to me. I called them and told them that I would never buy from them again, and that I would not say a good word about them until I got my money back. I still haven't gotten my money back, I have never purchased anything from them, and I'm not going to say anything good about them.
Used to love the old catalogs. One of my all time favorite products along with the massive crazy collection in the hood ornament section was the pipe organ 6x9s.... I did find that you can still get these from Mooneyes and a few other places.
Just look at that traffic congestion on the Dan Ryan expressway; holy cow... smoking trucks, drunk drivers, SUVs with 4 lap tap ab tabs going; wait, the sign post up ahead, "Marchers blocking all lanes ahead. YIKES ... BTW, what year is that catalog? I see its 50 cents (probably free in the store or mailbox). OOPS !!! Saw its 1967. Still sellings lotsa Model t Ford stuff back then... ws
